The encampments against evictions and the death of Maricarmen Abascal, who became a popular symbol of the fight for housing, have marked the starting signal for the race towards the elections to the Cortes. There is no doubt that, right now, access to decent housing is the main problem for Catalan and Spanish society. The latest CIS survey, a monograph on the subject, does nothing but confirm the clamor in favor of a change in policies. People want solutions: seven out of ten citizens are in favor of freezing rent prices for two years, and also seven or more out of ten people are in favor of giving more guarantees to owners in the face of possible non-payments, limiting tourist apartments, and raising taxes on large holders.

Shortly after the announcement of the election call, the PP's social media accounts circulated a video showing Minister Óscar Puente writhing in pain after breaking his leg. And the New Generations, one showing immigrants in Ceuta with the slogan: "Either them or us." These were two samples of where the party aspiring to govern Spain intends to take the campaign. Also on the same day, Isabel Díaz Ayuso and Vox asked their voters not to even think about voting by mail, thus sowing doubt about whether the current government is preparing a rigging. This is a scarecrow that the right has been waving for some time, with the idea of portraying Pedro Sánchez as an aspiring dictator.

This Tuesday has been a very important day in the fight to erase the effects of the judicial repression that was set in motion the very day after October 1st against political leaders and anonymous citizens for defending Catalonia's right to self-determination. The decision of the Constitutional Court, which has finally ordered the Supreme Court to apply the amnesty also to those accused of the crime of embezzlement, opens the door to the return of Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín, and Lluís Puig, and to nullify the disqualification from public office suffered by Oriol Junqueras, Dolors Bassa, Jordi Turull, and Raül Romeva. It will be the end of a process that has lasted many years: one that began with pardons, continued with the repeal of the crime of sedition, and has finally culminated in the total application of an amnesty that the judiciary has tried to torpedo by all means.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has seen a window of opportunity in the vote that defeated the housing decrees on Friday and has decided to dive headfirst into it. After a weekend of consultations, this Monday he announced the calling of early elections for November 29 and has turned his appearance into the first act of what is expected to be a long pre-campaign. Sánchez has asked for a broader majority to "bend the elites" and has urged the citizenry to place themselves on the "right side of history" in the face of what he has described as "the worst opposition in the history of democracy." Sánchez, therefore, is gambling on an all-or-nothing approach, presenting himself as the defender of the working classes against the powerful.

The rain and wind storm that has battered Catalonia this weekend has left spectacular images of flooding, tens of thousands of people affected to one degree or another, and a provisional toll of two dead and one missing. In the coming days, it will be necessary to refine the damage assessment and the management of the emergency, but from the outset, two things can already be stated. The ES-Alert warnings may be annoying at times, but this time they have proven their usefulness. Seeing the magnitude of the flows coming down streams and ravines, it is not difficult to think that without a generalized warning there would have been more victims. The citizenry, in general terms, has already learned to heed the recommendations and acts accordingly.

The housing decrees that were overturned on Friday in Congress were an emergency response to the social outcry caused by cases such as that of Maricarmen Abascal, the 87-year-old woman who was evicted in Madrid, or that of Olga, the resident of L'Hospitalet who committed suicide after losing her home, but they did not represent a structural solution to the problem. This is known even by the promoters of the decrees and the parties that voted in favor of them. Therefore, the first thing to do is to distinguish between the response to the social emergency posed by evictions and the more fundamental and multifactorial issue of access to decent housing under proper conditions.

Housing is undoubtedly the great problem of today's society, and there is no magic solution, nor, above all, a quick one. However, there are two elements that are certain: the first is that families are forced to allocate an increasingly larger portion of their income to it, especially if they are renting. And the second is that this excessive economic effort causes many people, when suffering any circumstance that leads to a drop in income – such as job loss or a health problem – to be unable to afford the mortgage or rent payment. Becoming a vulnerable person is not that difficult in today's world, and its bitterest face is evictions.

Not so long ago, the United States, the world's leading power, was perceived as a reliable economy, with stability and legal certainty. With Donald Trump in the White House, this image has changed, based on the comings and goings of tariff policy and the conflicts he has generated—such as the war with Iran. This is indicated by the interest rates on 10-year US Treasury debt, which have soared above 5.3%, well above the 5% threshold considered dangerous for an economy with a debt exceeding 40 trillion dollars.

The INE has published the GDP data for the year 2025, which confirm the phenomenon that has dominated the Spanish economy for decades: an ever-increasing concentration of economic activity and wealth in Madrid and an ever-widening gap between the capital of the Kingdom and the surrounding territories. If in the year 2000 the Madrid economy represented 17.5% of the Spanish total, in 2025 it has already reached 20%. In contrast, Catalonia keeps its share of the pie stable: it was 18.9% in the year 2000 and continues to be so 25 years later.

Pending the exact details of the decrees approved by the Spanish government this Tuesday, the first thing to say is that there is no issue more crucial and with as many edges right now in public debate as that of housing. But what the case of the Madrilenian Maricarmen Abascal has brought to the table is that no democratic society can accept that hundreds of people are evicted every week, nor that young people and those not so young find access to housing so difficult. The first is a matter of humanity, and the second affects the right to have a dignified life and has serious repercussions on the functioning of the economy.

The European Union's defense ministers met this Monday with a question on the table: how can a coordinated response be provided to the hybrid warfare that Russia is posing as part of its strategy to prevent European partners from continuing to assist Ukraine in its war effort? The meeting coincided, by the way, with a strong Russian attack on the center of Kyiv that had nothing hybrid about it, but rather showed the horror of war in all its dimensions: bombed buildings, civilian victims and, what is worse, the feeling that this is just the beginning.

The pressure on the streets for the Spanish government to approve the new housing decree to curb evictions has increased this weekend. The citizen mobilization has been an indisputable success. As the promoters of the demonstration and the encampment at the Puerta del Sol in Madrid have said themselves, it cannot be compared to the 15-M of 2011. There is less underlying ideological movement and more concrete demands. In reality, the current cry has a perfectly describable objective: to resolve access to housing, which has become the main cause of precariousness and inequality. And it responds to a very generalized malaise that is interclass and intergenerational. The image of Maricarmen Abascal, 87 years old, being evicted on a stretcher from the apartment where she has lived all her life, has made an impact on public opinion: many elderly citizens have imagined themselves in her situation, and many young people and adults have projected their own grandmother or mother onto her.

The Catalan public mental health system, especially for young people and adolescents, is under great strain. It is no consolation that, compared to the rest of the State, Catalonia is better off in this care field. It is not, because the professionals, who in recent months have raised various alarms in the form of reports and manifestos, still cannot cope. And families have to endure long waiting lists or, if they can, opt for private care –a visit with a psychologist or a psychiatrist costs between 50 and 120 euros–. Although the Generalitat has allocated more resources in recent years, the shortcomings remain notorious.

What happened in Madrid with Maricarmen Abascal, evicted at 87 from the apartment where she had lived her whole life and which she had paid for religiously, is unspeakable. Even more dramatic is the suicide of Olga, 54, a mother of two daughters, which took place in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat. The housing crisis today marks a precariousness that no longer only affects the most vulnerable, but also the middle class, with the youth collective especially left without options that go beyond family support. The right to housing is a fundamental right, but the harsh reality is that more and more people do not have it guaranteed: when this affects the elderly or children, the problem, as a society, shames us.

It will not be easy to turn around the strained climate into which the educational world has fallen. The atmosphere has degraded too much. The good offices of the president of the Council of Education, Joan Manuel del Pozo, who is tasked with redirecting the situation by seeking the pacification of the sector and a great country agreement, give reasons for hope. But beyond good words and a good temperament, facts, clear priorities, and sensible and brave decisions will be needed. Above all, a lot of common sense: because what is needed is to change course, but without great inventions and, also, with a little patience when it comes to obtaining results. There will not be, like in football, magical comebacks.

The United Nations was created by the San Francisco Charter in 1945 with the goal that the international community would have a forum to discuss global security issues without having to resort to armed conflict. The idea was not to repeat the mistakes of the interwar League of Nations and to have a truly representative body where all countries, however small, could have a voice and a vote to preserve the most precious good, peace. Surely, the creation of the Security Council with five permanent members, and therefore with veto power, already perverted the initial objective and has turned the UN into an inoperative entity, but what had never been seen before is the spectacle offered on Tuesday by Donald Trump threatening Iran with annihilation from the speakers' rostrum. This Wednesday, the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, appeared to show defiance and warn that "they have tested the strength and firmness of Iran, and they have learned that they cannot make Iran surrender".

Some day the history of how the Spanish judiciary conspired to prevent the application of a law democratically approved by the Congress of Deputies, as was the amnesty for those convicted and accused for the 'Procés', will have to be reconstructed, but luckily more than three years after its entry into force, light is beginning to be seen at the end of the tunnel. This Tuesday, September 22, the majority in the Constitutional Court has materialized to remove the last obstacle placed by the Supreme Court, which is to consider that the crime of embezzlement is not eligible for amnesty. The plenary session of the TC has rejected the proposal of the conservative magistrate José María Macías where this thesis was maintained and Jordi Turull's appeal against the decision not to apply the amnesty to him was dismissed. Now Macías will have to draft another proposal in the opposite direction.

Angela Merkel held the German chancellery between 2005 and 2021, 16 years during which she exercised undisputed leadership in her country that also extended to Europe. Her formula combined economic austerity with gestures of great moral stature, such as the opening of borders to Syrian refugees during the 2015 crisis. Managing her legacy, however, is proving especially complicated for Germany, with a stagnant economy and a rise of the extreme right that was unthinkable just a few years ago.

Americans are feeling the price of Donald Trump's war in Iran in their pockets. Last Friday, the average price of diesel in the United States was near its all-time high of $6.43 per gallon, according to GasBuddy, and the president's own voters are fearlessly expressing their discontent on social media. It is a situation that worries Republicans because it adds to the crisis also caused by the trade war. Their economic situation, however, is not nearly as serious as that of other countries, from Guatemala to Indonesia, where there have been demonstrations and protests over the rise and shortage of fuel due to the Gulf crisis. In Spain, of course, were it not for state aid, the unrest would also be deeper, and even so, a hot autumn is already expected, because farmers and transporters are demanding more aid, as what they have is not enough to maintain their activity.

If you have plastic food containers, do not put them in the microwave and, in general, try to prevent them from heating up. Some, the majority, are endocrine disruptors. That is to say, despite being petroleum-derived products, they simulate hormonal functioning that alters health in very diverse ways. Also endocrine disruptors are the price labels placed on trays of fresh or cooked supermarket products. Experts advise that we do not touch them and that we quickly avoid their contact with food. The plastic that wraps these trays can also be toxic. And shampoo, sunscreen, or synthetic clothing that repels water. Scientists have identified a thousand toxic elements that can function as endocrine disruptors, and which in some cases penetrate the human body and can stay there for even years. It is not something immediate. There is no clear cause-effect relationship, and other factors contribute to it, but it is becoming clearer, after hundreds of scientific studies, that constant exposure to this cocktail of toxins ends up having consequences. It has been linked, for example, to early puberty, obesity, diabetes, and infertility problems. And there are starting to be indications that link them to some types of hormonal cancer, such as prostate or breast cancer. They are especially dangerous for pregnant women, children, and adolescents.